Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-12-28

.honoe n year and day there can be no
..nosonable doubt that the seventh yeal
-, snoken of ia the seventh day, WHICH
~ n' Sunday or the day of the SUM-,
"Thus far, then, We FOUND q lao oo,t ilai ~
named Shakespeare, born on tne zV'u Cl
March. in the seventh yearo l1ilzaoetu
Ion. ma which means really that the sun
o,od Fkntabolos, the Far-darter or
ssUnear.sbaker, begins his annual lifetime
~ ~ tbe vernal equinox, in the sign OF the
Viroin and on the day dedicated 10 DIS
honor. Sunday. Then continue the early
lara If Shakespeare, involved IN dark
ness. which is a way with al soiar
MYTHS. and we hear absolutely notnlnB
Of him until we find him coming INTO
collision with certain Sir Thomas
Incv' Here the Interpretation Is easy.
for Lucy is evidently corruption OF
the Latin mr. Mcis-light The iaoie OF
Shakespeare stealing deer from Lucy Is
nooticoI wav OF saying that the sun, the
sneer shaker. rebs the light OF It's rays
and decorates himself with the sPonS'
How truly beautiful is the next episode
in the legend The sun mounting above
the horizon and tenderly keeping watch
over this globe of ours Is ldealized
and transformed into the poetic concep-
tion of Shakespeare, mounting above
footliohts and becoming manager OF the
Globe Theatre. During his manage
mont fine Globe is reduced to ashes,
which is evidently an imperfect version
Of the story of Phaeton lnterpolated by
some later hand. As the sun rises in the
cast and sets in the west, so III the le-
geud is Shakespeare made to rise 10
fame in London, the east OF England,
and Mt East End, and settle down to Die
in Stratford. which. compared with Lon
don. is undoubtedly the west.
"Finally, rs the suns annual Ire IS
brought TO its end in fiitytwo weeks, so
does Shakespeare, tue allegoncal sum-
sink and die after a life OF f1ity-two
wears. substituting the week for the year.
The parallel is complete as to how the
connection originated between the ale
eorical sun god and the plays that bear
his name. There are three hypothesis
possible-the first that the plays were IN
existence before the allogOry had become
crystallized into its present shape anu
were dedicated to the sun god under hrs
cognomen, the Spear-shaker. The second
IS that they were written by the priests OF
the sun god, and third, that they were
the direct productions Of the sun god
himself. This last view is broadly limited
at in one OF the plays themselves, where
the following mysterious sentence Is
found: If the sun ever writes Dooh
critics will have plenty of work IN de
ciphering it, The TOOL then 'knayeS
may find employment But many other
reasons besides go to support the theory,
for on no other suppositlon can we ac-
count for the repeated references-2@O
in numbcr-to sun alone.
"Yarious solar, stellar, andmeteorolo-
gical phenomenal illusions to night,
heat, cold. rain, snow, stars, moon, SKY,
and clouds occur over and over again \;
four seasons are continually mentioned
and two leading ones, summer and WIN
ter, have two whole plays dedicated to
their service-'A Midsummer Night 5
Dream and a Winters Tale. The
SIGNS of the zodiac enact still more IL
lustrious role The sign twins are palpa-
bly the foundation Of the Comedy OF Er
rors.' The sign Of the scales furnishes
the catastrophe to the Merchant OF Ven
ice. Most honorably is the crab alluded
70 in Two Gentlemen Of Verona, IN
der the allepory of Launce's dog Crab,
while the lion is actually brought on the
stage along with the moon and other ce-
/ lestials in the interlude Of the Midsum-
mer NIGHTS Dream, whore the stage
/ joiner plays the lions part. Out of the
| mass vi facts here adduced it Is quite
possible for a practiced critic to invah-
/ date or explain away some halt-doZen or
so, but ell petty tamperlng with the po-
sitiOn viii be entirel Y nugatory. since
we now proceed TO greater heights OF
discovery, and bring forward three facts.
/ The first fact is the total number OF
words in plays is exactly equal TO the
total number of miles H. the suns diane
ter, being precisely $3.50
THE second fact is still more con-
yincing. Take the plays IN any order
and count the words from beginning to
the middle and you will find the two cen
trail words-that is to say, the ~, 5OGth
and the ~, 5Olst-to bee the sun. Third
", and as accurately following statistics
would be little more troublesome to
test, we give notice that whoever has
found us right in the two preceding cal
culations may spare himself pains yeri-
fving the following since 1t Is quite rs
correct as either the former: the total
number of letters i'll the plays is 500, 600.
Now, according to Pythagoras, five Is
the nuptial number multiply, Therefore,
100000 by 19-Shakspeare's age. accord
ing to the legend, at the time Of his
marriage-and the result is 95,O00,OOO,
which is the exact distance OF the sun
from the earth, calculated in miles.